Pugh’s Tiffany Turn, Choo Chooses Cho, Ralph Lauren’s Bigger Fortnite
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A LOCK ON PUGH: Newly minted house ambassador Florence Pugh features in the latest Tiffany & Co. Lock campaign.
“We are excited to showcase the new expressions of the Tiffany Lock motif,” explained Tiffany & Co. executive vice president, product and communication Alexandre Arnault. “Our house ambassadors showcase the new designs in a campaign that is anchored in the idea of love, which has been central to our brand DNA since our founding in 1837.”
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Jimmy Choo Taps Mi-Yeon of (G)I-dle as Global Brand Ambassador
EXCLUSIVE: Florence Pugh Appears in Tiffany & Co.'s Latest 'Lock' Campaign
The English actress — currently in movie theaters starring in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” — joins fellow house ambassadors Rosé of Blackpink, Jimin of BTS and singer Nancy Ajram in the latest campaign for the newest Lock designs. The next chapter of the Lock range included an array of pendants, rings, earrings and bracelets in various colorways.
“The message anchoring the campaign is simple yet incredibly impactful: it’s a celebration of love and the bonds that we form in life. The new Lock designs are beautiful symbols of that ethos,” Pugh said of the Tiffany & Co. campaign.
The Academy Award-nominated actress debuted a freshly shaved head at the 2023 Met Gala for a role in the upcoming movie “We Live in Time.” While the 2023-24 film release schedule is in flux due to the current writers and actors strikes in Hollywood, Pugh is tied to several upcoming films, including “Dune: Part Two.”
Inspired by an archival padlock from 1883, Tiffany Lock is a legacy expression of design and craftsmanship at the brand, paying homage to the jeweler’s heritage. Created for all genders, the latest collection introduces various colorways of earrings, pendants, rings and a bracelet to the diamond and gold collection. The offerings are available in 18-karat white, yellow and rose gold with full pavé diamonds, half pavé diamonds or an all-metal way. In addition, Tiffany & Co. debuts a new Lock bracelet in 18-karat white gold with half pavé diamonds and half baguette diamonds — featured in the images featuring Jimin.
The new Lock collection is priced from $2,200 to $95,000, with the bracelet in white gold with baguette and pavé diamonds being the most expensive. It debuts Tuesday globally at Tiffany & Co. stores and on tiffany.com. — THOMAS WALLER
CHOO CHOOSES CHO: Jimmy Choo, the luxury accessory brand owned by Capri Holdings, has tapped Mi-Yeon Cho, a member of the K-pop group (G)I-dle, as its latest global brand ambassador.
In the first move of her ambassadorship, Cho will be featured in the brand’s fall 2023 campaign launching Aug. 30.
Sandra Choi, creative director of Jimmy Choo, said that “Mi-Yeon is magnetic. From her musical talent to her captivating performances and inimitable personal style, she truly embodies the confident, playful spirit and creative energy of Jimmy Choo.”
Cho said she loves “the joy and glamour of the collection,” and that she feels “more confident when I am wearing Jimmy Choo.”
With more than 4.4 million followers on Instagram, Cho has amassed a loyal following for her fashion styles. Her dedicated fan account shows that she has been dressed by top brands such as Prada, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Fendi, and Dolce & Gabbana.
The Asian market has been a top priority for Jimmy Choo in recent years. As of 2023, the brand operates 35 stores in Greater China, 16 stores in South Korea, and 45 stores in Japan, representing 44 percent of its global retail footprint.
Earlier this year the brand released a landmark collaboration with “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon,” arguably one of the most fashionable Japanese anime series in history.
Last year Jimmy Choo appointed actress and singer Son Na-Eun its first South Korean ambassador.
Hannah Colman, chief executive officer of Jimmy Choo, noted that the brand has “a long-standing relationship with brand activations in South Korea, from product placements in hit TV dramas to our collaboration with the stylist YK Jeung.”
“These projects celebrate Jimmy Choo’s inherent connection to celebrity and creative talent. The appointment of Mi-Yeon as our global brand ambassador is an exciting milestone for us adding another layer to our brand affinity in the region,” she added. — TIANWEI ZHANG
A BIGGER GAME: Ralph Lauren is expanding its relationship with Fortnite.
On Thursday, the company will launch an immersive branded world, called “Race to Greatness,” on the gaming site that will feature a Polo x Fornite PWing Boot that will be offered for sale. Last November Ralph Lauren created a line of clothing that was sold on the site, but now it has created a game as well as a physical version of the boot.
Inspired by the digital boot from the original Polo Stadium Collection that debuted last fall, the boot will be available for purchase on the Ralph Lauren site the same day the game debuts. The midsole molded “fins” on the boot were inspired by the jet pack glider from the original Polo Stadium Collection digital outfit.
As part of the Race to Greatness, a Polo Pony-shaped island — Ralph Lauren’s first digital landscape designed exclusively for Fortnite — has been created. It offers three distinct topographies — Ralph’s Airplane Hangar, the Rocky Mountains and Grand Forests — that were inspired by the designer’s personal home and garage as well as his previous collections, runway shows and home collection. There are RL-CF1 chairs, a Langham desk and Fulton pendants on the glossy black floors designed to mimic those in Lauren’s New York apartment, and hanging light fixtures modeled after those in his garage.
The Summit Building, inspired by the “P” of the brand’s P-Wing logo, showcases the Polo x Fortnite P-Wing Boot enclosed in glass. Only 300 pairs are being produced and they will retail for $250. In addition, for the first two weeks of August, the Stadium collection of apparel and cosmetics will be re-released in the Fortnite Item Shop.
To promote the launch, Ralph Lauren will hold a global livestream event streamed exclusively on Twitch on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. ET allowing users to interact for two hours with top gamers. It will be hosted by SypherPK, and will feature interviews, interactive games and challenges with streamers and e-sports stars including LetShe, Gotaga, Tubbo, Hikakim and Deansocool, many of who will be wearing Polo both virtually and physically.
“Race to Greatness” was built using Fortnite’s Creative toolset and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). — JEAN E. PALMIERI
FIRST AMBASSADORS: Talk about a Hollywood-worthy double billing.
After revealing it would stage its fall 2024 men’s and women’s collection in Los Angeles in December, Balenciaga on Monday unveiled French actress Isabelle Huppert and Thai actor, singer and model PP Krit Amnuaydechkorn as its first brand ambassadors.
Both “individual personas represent the modern Balenciaga community” through “their creative work, values and approaches to life,” the Kering-owned luxury label said in a statement.
While there has been no shortage of star power under Demna’s tenure, with the likes of Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Bella Hadid and Justin Bieber appearing in the brand’s communication, this is the first time the brand has formally installed anyone in the role.
“Balenciaga tells a story of passion and dedication to artistry,” stated Huppert. “I’ve always believed that fashion is an art form and I’m thrilled to be part of this narrative.”
The veteran French actress has been a “friend of the house” since 2021 and has walked several of its shows, both for ready-to-wear and couture, as well as appeared in its ads, including the controversy-hit office-themed spring 2023 campaign and its latest winter 2023 campaign shot during the renovation of the fashion house’s original Avenue George V headquarters.
Throughout her five-decade-long career, Huppert has played in some 130 feature films and television shows, as well as dozens of stage performances, winning 11 awards including a Golden Globe in 2017 and two for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Among other distinctions, she was inducted into France’s National Order of Merit and its Legion of Honor, holding the rank of officer in both orders.
She also holds the record for the actress with the most films entered in the official competition of the French festival. During the 2017 edition of the festival, she was named the face of the third edition of Kering’s Women in Motion program.
Amnuaydechkorn, also known as “PP Krit” to fans, said, “Balenciaga has captured [my] attention for its creativity and ethical vision,” as well as “allowed [me] to express [my] authentic self and individuality to the world.”
The 24-year-old actor rose to prominence in 2019 as a supporting character in the popular Thai drama series “My Ambulance” and cemented his position as a heartthrob with 2020’s “I Told Sunset About You,” where he also performed two of the songs on the soundtrack.
Amnuaydechkorn launched his musical career in 2021, released five singles and received a number of awards for both acting and singing.
He counts some 3.9 million followers on Instagram and recently attended the brand’s fall 2023 rtw and couture shows in March and July. According to Balenciaga, he is slated to collaborate on upcoming projects.
Thailand is a key emerging market for luxury brands, projected to be worth $4.6 billion in 2023. It is forecast to grow 5.6 percent annually through 2028. In June, Dior tapped Thai actors Nattawin Wattanagitiphat, better known as Apo, and Phakphum Romsaithong, nicknamed Mile, as its newest men’s ambassadors for the country. — LILY TEMPLETON
RAIN PROOF: The annual Watermill Center summer benefit on Saturday evening had an unexpected performance show up mid-event: a rainstorm. But the weather didn’t put a proverbial damper on Robert Wilson’s restaging of his piece “Ubu,” which featured a live narration from Wilson himself after a sound system malfunction. The evening, which raises support for the center’s programming and support of performance art, marked the first time that one of the Watermill founder’s pieces has been performed in New York in almost a decade. “Ubu” originally premiered at the Es Baluard museum in Palma in 2022.
The outdoor benefit kicked off with more than 19 performance installations by the center’s artists-in-residence, located throughout the center’s campus in Water Mill, New York. Guests included Blythe Danner, Daniel Arsham, Robert Longo, Lisa Perry, Legacy Russell, Young Paris, Coco Fusco and Cuba Gooding Jr.
“The Body: The Watermill Center Summer Benefit” was sponsored by Van Cleef & Arpels, and honored artist Simone Forti and the late Baroness Nina von Maltzahn. Additional support for the event was provided by Prada, Aperol, Campari and PFrankMD. — KRISTEN TAUER
ALL ABOUT MAX: Before Max Meyer founded the Fashion Institute of Technology and served as the school’s president, he worked as a buyer for a New York City-based cloak and suit manufacturer in the early decades of the 20th century.
During that time, Meyer commissioned thousands of drawings of French couture designs to be licensed for production Stateside. Now FIT is spinning that interest into a new dimension with “Unconventional Then, Now, & Always: A Helix of FIT Influence from Max Meyer to Daria Dorosh.” Some of the Meyer-sourced watercolor and ink images from Chanel, Poiret, Molyneux, Lanvin, Paquin and other European houses are being juxtaposed with comparable examples of 1920s garments from the study collection of FIT’s graduate program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice.
The show is meant to bridge two centuries — one analogue, one digital, expressed through art, fashion, technology, video, and scent created for the project by Gayil Nalls. Fifteen sketches, garments, archival materials and new technology are featured to spark discussions about women, privilege, innovation, the rise of new media and mass entertainment. The two bespoke scents, Hope Water and Forage, will be introduced during the exhibition to enhance the visitor experience.
Meyer’s personal story is a lasting one. In 1890, his family relocated to the U.S. from Alsace, France, partially so that he would avoid compulsory military service in the Prussian army. Improving the marriage prospects of his sisters was also said to be another incentive. After one of his sisters wed Abraham Beller, the owner of Beller & Co., he joined the company at 14, doing menial tasks like sweeping the sidewalk. Over time, his daily responsibilities changed and Meyer became a buyer for the company at the age of 21. In total, he spent 39 years at the company and traveled to Paris 110 times. Meyer considered himself to be one of the first American ready-to-wear manufacturers to order models from couture houses.
To give the show more of a digital allure, passersby on the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and West 27th Street will see an AI interpretation of a jpeg on a 14.5-foot x 10-foot banner. Noting how the result is an amplification 8,000 times larger than the original image, the show’s co-curator Karen Trivette said, “I really wanted to leverage as much as I could what technology could do. We have moving slide shows 24/7 that feature garments in the show, and manuscript assets in the show that have been extremely enlarged. Sketches that were on 8 x 10 [inch] pieces of paper from the early 1900s have been digitized so that they could be enormously reproduced. So details like the lining of a coat from 1927 are evident, because of the enormity of the upsizing,” she said.
The new exhibition in FIT’s Art and Design Gallery will be open to the public as of Thursday and will remain on view through Sept. 10. For more of a multidimensional spin, a nearby gallery will showcase the contemporary art and fashion pieces of FIT alumna and former FIT Professor Daria Dorosh, PhD. While Meyer “took a unique object and made it for the multiple,” Dorosh, who co-curated the exhibition, “has taken the multiples of mass production — brought on by fast fashion and consumer culture — and brought that back to the unique,“ Trivette said. “She has taken things like a Chanel jacket and married it with a hoodie, creating things that exist nowhere else.”
The upcoming show is a collaboration between the Spatial Experience Design Department, Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice, and the Special Collections and College Archives. As for what Meyer would make of the exhibition, Trivette said, “At the heart of it, he was an educator and a person, who really wanted to elevate the fashion industry in New York City and in America. To do that, he knew he had to appeal to France. Plus, he was a raging Francophile anyway, being from Alsace. But I think he would be pleased — having been such a behind-the-scenes figure to see that this was front and center.”
Some of Meyer’s relatives loaned items for the exhibition and plan to attend the opening. “I know his family is just over-the-moon with this recognition coming at this time, because it’s 100 years after the fact,” Trivette said. — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG
DUBAI-BOUND: The troubled Trussardi brand and its home and furniture licensee Luxury Living Group on Monday unveiled a three-pronged partnership with MIRA Developments to debut the first Trussardi-branded residential complex.
The development, under the Trussardi Residences moniker, is to be built in Dubai’s Al Furjan neighborhood, a rapidly evolving area in the city not far from the Palm Jebel Ali real estate project by the local government and connected to the airport.
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The complex is to feature 119 apartments over 11 stories, including single-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Three additional floors will house a garage area, as well as cafés and retail spaces, while the rooftop floor, decked in greenery, will house a panoramic gym and running track.
The apartments, some expected to feature terraces equipped with private pools, will be constructed of organic materials such as wood and stone and furnished with items from the Trussardi Casa home collection.
The interior design projects were spearheaded by the fashion house and furniture licensee in tandem with a pool of international and Italian designers and artists, hinged on the “quiet luxury,” subdued trend popular in design. The company emphasized that the project has a sustainable bent, via the use of eco-minded and recycled materials.
The United Arab Emirates-based MIRA Developments is a real estate developer part of the Mira Group, focused on a waterfront residential project in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE and a residential island in Dubai.
The project comes as the big shake-up that affected Trussardi in the spring is still unresolved.
In March WWD first reported that the entire board of the Milan-based company had resigned, and that chief executive officer Sebastian Suhl was no longer in charge. Serhat Işık and Benjamin A. Huseby, the design duo behind the GmbH label, also left the brand after almost two years as creative directors. It was understood at the time that the goal was to restructure Trussardi for a potential sale. — MARTINO CARRERA
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